Boston Marathon runner hopes to turn tragedy into inspiration

A Duquesne University law student is back home from Boston following her close brush with danger.

After completing the Boston Marathon, Kaitlyn Kacsuta said she was minutes from being where the first bomb exploded.

"I was walking toward the location where the first bomb went off," said Kacsuta.

It should have been the best time of her running life, and Kacsuta said the people there reminded her of Pittsburgh.

"It was really exciting crossing the finish line. It was so exhilarating being in Boston, being a part of the Boston Marathon," said Kacsuta. "It was loud from the time I walked to the start until the time I crossed the finish line. (Everyone was) just cheering."

After finishing the race, Kacsuta said she called her father while walking to a friend's office, where the first bomb went off.

"I heard this really loud 'boom,' and I wasn’t really sure what it was at first," said Kacsuta.

She was changing her clothes in a bathroom when she said her friend, Emily, came flying in with the terrifying news.

"She said, 'Kaitlyn that was a bomb. We need to leave.' I didn’t know what to think. I know I left some stuff in the bathroom and I just picked everything that I could grab and left," said Kacsuta. "I definitely saw two or three injured victims that were being attended to on those side streets by volunteers."

"It was really frightening because there was just so many people that didn’t know what was going on. There were people that were crying. They didn’t know if they were accounted for," she said.

Kacsuta soon learned of the deaths and mass injuries after watching a video that looked like a war zone.

"I may have passed the suspect No. 1 on the street as I was walking into my friend's building. That was just a really frightening feeling," said Kacsuta.

Back in Pittsburgh, Kacsuta plans on giving back by organizing a run Sunday morning.

"I was very grateful and I just thought I needed to do something for the City of Boston," said Kacsuta. "I'm going to make that 180 miles over 26 days and just try to run through Pittsburgh and get people to donate to the official Boston relief fund."

Kacsuta's run will start at 8 a.m. at the Riverfront parking on the south side. Proceeds of the run will go to the One Fund.

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